The Utimatum
by task0778
Summary: This story centers on the interaction between Adrien and his father when Adrien discovers his father is Hawkmoth. It's only 3 chapters, and the last one is kinda long. Some drama, angst, attempt at humor here and there. Story will be updated daily.
1. Chapter 1

1\. Confrontation

After cross-checking data from all known Akuma attacks, Adrien has concluded that his father is Hawkmoth, and Nathalie is Mayura. So he packs an overnight bag with his phone and a few other items and leaves it in his room next to the window and then confronts his father and Nathalie in his study.

He knocks on the door and enters without waiting for permission. "You are Hawkmoth, aren't you? And she is Mayura! I know it's true, why are you doing this? You've never lied to me before that I know of, I cannot conceive of any valid reason for putting so many people in danger. Even me, how could you do that?"

"I have my reasons, Adrien. You'll understand when this is all over."

"This is unacceptable, father. I want to know right now before anyone else is put at risk. Maybe you need to understand this", and he transforms into Chat Noir in front of his amazed father and his assistant.

Chat Noir stares at his father and continues. "All this time we have been enemies, do you know how many times I have been hurt and almost killed? This has to stop now, father. I want you to give me your Miraculous and hers too, now!"

"So it's true, you are Chat Noir. I suspected that you might be." He stands up and starts walking towards his son, who begins to back-up. "I'm afraid I can't do that, son. Give me your Miraculous, Adrien."

"Stay where you are, father! You are not going to get my Miraculous, father. You'll have to kill me first!" And with that, he turns and runs to his bedroom, closing the door on the way out of the study and grabbing his overnight bag. Then he jumps out of the open window before his father can catch him.

Notes: It wasn't important to the story to explain how Adrien came to his conclusion, the point is what he would do about it. He reveals his secret identity to his father so Gabriel will realize his own son's life is on the line if he continues to akumatize people.


	2. Chapter 2

2\. The Ultimatum

Chat Noir stops a few minutes after leaving the Agreste home. Chest heaving, he pulls himself into a fetal position and lets the tears flow. After a while, he stops and composes himself, and transforms into Adrien.

"Plagg", he says to his diminutive kwami, "I can't take any more of this. I am going to end it one way or another, either Hawkmoth and Mayura surrender their Miraculous or I am going to destroy that house with them in it. Maybe myself along with it if I have to. But if we can stop these Akuma attacks then the sacrifice will have been worth it."

Plagg flies up close to Adrien's face, looking him in the eyes. "That's a pretty drastic measure, don't you think? Are you going to bring Ladybug in on this?"

"No, I don't think so. There's little she can do, I think. Besides, she probably wouldn't let me do it this way. I'll send her a message before it happens, so she'll know why I did what I'm about to do. And it could be that my father will not make it necessary." Adrien looks down, then returns his kwami's stare.

"Too many people have been put in danger, and too many more are about to be. That's why I accepted this responsibility in the first place, to prevent that as much as I could, knowing what the consequences could be." He pauses, thinking. "I've got to try to stop this if I can, without anyone else getting hurt."

Plagg sighs, then asks Adrien what he intends to do.

"It's simple enough. I'll give him the chance to give up. If he does, great. If he doesn't, well then things will get a little tricky."

"Like how tricky?"

"If he doesn't surrender then I'm going to cataclysm that house and everyone and everything in it including myself. He's going to get 10 minutes to make up his mind."

Plagg stares at him for a long time, then asks. "Do you think he will surrender"?

"I'd like to think so. I'm not going to give him any other options, or time to come up with any kind of plan. He can explain whatever he needs to after he has been disarmed, so to speak."

Adrien considers, then continues. "My father has lost his wife, the love of his life. Will he also gamble on losing his only son too? I'd like to think he won't".

"And you'll bet your life on that?"

"Yes," replies Adrien. At that moment his phone rings.

It's Nathalie. "Your father wants you to come home now. He wants to talk to you."

"Then tell him to pick-up the God Damned phone and call me himself! I shouldn't have to go through someone else to talk to my own father!" And Adrien ends the call.

A minute later his phone rings again, this time his father is on the line. "Adrien, I want you to come home and we can work this out. I'll explain everything then."

Adrien looks at his phone in angry disbelief. "Do you think me to be a fool, so easily misled and manipulated? I know what you want, you want to talk me into giving you my Miraculous. Well, that isn't going to happen, the only way you'll get my Miraculous is over my dead body. Alright, now you listen to me. You have 10 minutes to put your Miraculous into the box it came in and Mayura's into hers, and put them both outside the front door along with that Miraculous Book of Spells and then go back inside. I will pass by and pick them up and return them to the Guardian. If I don't see those boxes or there is any trickery at all, I will immediately cataclysm your house and everything in it, even if it means your death and mine."

"Your mother's body is in this house, Adrien. She's alive, but not conscious and I've been trying to obtain the Miraculous from Ladybug and Chat Noir to have enough power to bring her back to life."

"I'm sure Ladybug and I will try to help you do that, but it's going to have to be our way. Which means you'll have to surrender the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous first. There will be no more Akuma attacks against innocent people."

"You don't trust me, do you son?" Gabriel asks.

"No, I do not. Do not doubt me, if I don't see those Miraculous boxes and the book out there, then I am going to cataclysm the house and anyone or anything still in it. Even you, father. This not negotiable, you will do it my way or else I will reduce your house to total rubble. Including myself."

He pauses for several seconds, looking off into the distance. "Do you love me, father? I once thought you did, but now it's time to choose. You have lost mother, will you also lose your son? Your 10 minutes starts now." And he ends the call.

He then sends a text message to Marinette.

"I wish I didn't have to do this to you, but I don't have a number for Ladybug, so I'll have to hope you can get this message to her. Briefly, I have discovered that my father is Hawkmoth and of course, Nathalie is Mayura. I have given them an ultimatum: they will surrender their Miraculous to me or I will cataclysm the Agreste home, with them and me in it. It means I might not survive, so I'd like to take this time to tell you how much I cared for you and Ladybug and tell all my friends how much they meant to me. This isn't something I want to do, but the safety and security of the citizens of Paris comes first and I am ready and willing to make the sacrifice if it becomes necessary. If she asks why I didn't tell her first, tell her I didn't want her to see me die. Love, Chat/Adrien."

He waits for 9 and a half minutes, then sends the text message then so that Ladybug won't have enough time to intervene. And then he heads back to his home.

Notes:

Ordinary people risk their own lives every day; police, firemen, military, even the average person sometimes. It's not shocking that Adrien would do the same, given his character.

Far as I know, in the show Ladybug and Chat Noir do not have a way to communicate directly with each other. That is a problem that ought to be corrected in season 4.

If Adrien were to follow through with his ultimatum, he knows that Plagg would survive and maybe the ring would too. Maybe the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous would too, along with the respective kwamis. Probably not the humans though, although not for certain. But Emelie's container certainly would be destroyed, most likely ending her life. Tough call for her son to make, but IMHO the right one.

The final chapter is tomorrow, and it's a little lengthy.


	3. Chapter 3

3\. The Result

30 seconds later, Chat Noir swoops down to the front of the Agreste home and sees the two Miraculous boxes and the magic spell book outside the front door. He quickly looks around for any sign of Hawkmoth or Mayura but sees nothing. So, quickly he drops down to the ground, picks up the items and immediately departs. After moving a few blocks away, he stops and checks the 2 boxes to make sure they have the true Miraculous in them, which they do. As he ponders where to go next, he spots Ladybug fast approaching the Agreste mansion in one quick hurry. He shouts and waves, she sees him and changes direction to meet him.

With profound relief palpably visible on her face, she lands in front of him and immediately launches herself into his arms. "Don't you EVER do that to me again!" she exclaims and begins to cry so hard she can barely stand.

After a few minutes, she lefts her head from his shoulder and slaps him across the chest. "What the hell were you thinking, not to tell me first what you were up to?"

"Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time", he replies, but she is not amused. "The truth is, if I didn't get these Miraculous from them then I was going to cataclysm that house with them and me in it. And I didn't want you around to see it, or maybe get hurt yourself trying to save me."

She stared at him for a long time, saying nothing.

He looks away, then looks back at her and says, "when I accepted the Chat Noir ring, I did so knowing I was putting myself at risk of injury, even of dying. This was a chance to put a stop to it all, so I took it." He stops, then looks her in the eye. "I thought it was the right thing to do."

She gives him a hard glare. "You still should've told me first."

He grins at her at says "maybe next time."

"GOD DAMN IT CHAT! You ain't funny!" And she jumps into his arms again. "I'll have your ass skinned and flayed if you ever do that again!" She wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheek and he kisses the top of her head.

"Yes ma'am", he meekly replies, hoping that he looks appropriately chastised. A sudden thought pops into his head. "I gotta call Marinette right away, she must be worried as all get-out about me. I have to tell her I didn't get killed."

"Yet." This from Ladybug.

"Yet." Agrees Chat.

He looks sheepishly at Ladybug and asks, "did you see the text message I sent? I kinda sorta told her I was Adrien Agreste so you would know who I was under the mask, just in case the worst happened. She's a very trustworthy person though, I trust her with my secret." He looks over at Ladybug and tells her that he knows Marinette as Adrien and that they are classmates in school.

He then pulls out his phone and sends Marinette a text message telling her that he's okay and not to tell anyone about his secret identity. Ladybug meanwhile has pulled out her phone and is busily typing her own text message, after killing the sound the phone makes when there's an incoming text. "I'm just telling my parents that I'll be home soon", she says.

"So, did it work?" she asks him, after the texting is done. "Did you get the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous?"

"Yeah, and the Book of Spells too. I looked, they're in there." And he proceeds to tell her about his mother being unconscious but alive, according to his father. "I promised to try to help him bring her back to life; I don't know if it's even possible, but we can look into it. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

"No, not really. Maybe we could visit that Tibetan Monastery and see what we can learn." She frowns, thinking. "I believe one of the kwamis can transport us there very quickly."

She looks at him, questioningly. "Are you planning on going back home tonight? Maybe you shouldn't do that right away."

He considers the question. "I think I need to give that some thought." He looks at her and says, "the last thing I need is for him to get his hands on Plagg. He could conceivably threaten to destroy all of Paris if we didn't accede to his demands. And I need to verify that it's true what he told me about my mother, maybe Tikki or Plagg or one of the other kwamis can help with determining her condition."

She looks at him appraisingly. "So you are Adrien Agreste, huh?"

"I'm afraid so," answers Chat Noir. "You probably need to know that anyway as the new Guardian, but maybe you or I should visit Marinette to make sure she understands the gravity of keeping our identities a secret." He pauses, thinking. "Although it might not be a big deal anymore now that Hawkmoth doesn't have his Miraculous."

"I'll drop by and see her later," Ladybug says, then gives him a searching look. "You don't mind if I don't reveal my identity to you, at least for now? It probably seems a little unfair, but I need to think about it."

He answers, "no, not really. It's your call, and I can live with whatever you decide. Somebody needs to know if you're ever out of action though, or unavailable. I have to say, it's a load off my mind that you know. Tell you what though, I probably do need a phone number for you, just for the two of us for emergencies. Like maybe if I might be about to do something rash, stuff like that."

"I mean it, Chat, the last thing I need right now is to lose you. Even with the Akuma threats over, I can't do it alone. Please don't leave me." She gives him another big hug. "I can't believe I almost lost you today. Were you really going to do it?"

"Yes." After they break apart he looks at her, eyes locked together. "It was a calculated risk, hoping that he wouldn't want to lose the only family he has left, even though he hasn't really shown any affection for me or time spent with me doing dad stuff."

"So, where do you intend to spend the night?"

"I don't really know, haven't thought that far ahead to be honest. I'll find someplace. Maybe I can get a blanket from Marinette and sleep on her balcony."

"I'm sure that'll be fine with her. If you think you can stay out of trouble for a little while, I'll put these guys in a safe place and set you up and then come and get you." She glares at him. "And you better be here when I get back, kitty. Or you'll find out the hard way about a Ladybug cataclysm."

"Perish the thought," he replies with his trademark grin. "I'll be here."

FINI

Notes:

The story could have gone the other way if Hawkmoth decides not to surrender his and Mayura's Miraculous. But knowing it's his own son he's fighting is I think the deciding factor. He wants his wife back but not at the expense of his son. Will that happen? Happy endings are nice, but it's possible that for Emilie to regain her consciousness, Gabriel may have to sacrifice his own. Which might have been his plan all along, but sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men do go awry.

Hard to say what the aftermath might be. Would Gabriel and Mayura go to prison? I don't know, but it wasn't really central to my story. I don't know anything about French law or justice, or how it differs from ours. What about Adrien, where does he live from this point on? One would hope not with Felix and his family, that boy is bad news. Would Adrien and Ladybug make a deal with Gabriel to allow Adrien to live elsewhere, and in return not be reported to the police? Don't know, but as I said in the story, he cannot allow his father to get the Black Cat Miraculous. Or Felix either.

What happens between Ladybug/Marinette and Chat Noir/Adrien is also fodder for another story. Clearly they care deeply for each other, and at 15 or 16 (whatever), they aren't ready for a deeper commitment anyway. Yet. No reason to rush things and after all, we all know they were made for each other.


End file.
